1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stamp apparatus for stamping a desired image onto an object and more particularly to improvements in ease at which desired images can be produced.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been proposed one type of conventional stamp apparatus in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Application Publication No. HEI-2-27361. FIGS. 1a, 1b, and 1c show a front view, side view, and top view respectively of the stamp apparatus. The stamp apparatus includes a casing 85 which forms substantially an inverted L-shape when viewed from the side as in FIG. 1b. A block portion 83 forms the horizontal section of the inverted L-shape and a board portion 84 forms the vertical section of the inverted L-shape, the block portion 83 being connected to the board portion 84. To the front of the block portion 83, as shown in FIG. 1a, is provided a display 82. As shown in FIG. 1b, to the rear of the block portion 83, i.e., the side of the block portion 83 opposing the display 82, is provided a window hole 81. To the front side of the board portion 84 and beneath the display 82, as shown in FIG. 1a, are provided keys 89 representing various characters such as alphanumeric letters and symbols.
Within the casing 85, as can be seen in FIG. 1c, there are mounted an endless loop belt 86 with the characters represented by the keys of the board portion 84 being formed along the length of an outer side thereof, a loop belt drive mechanism (not shown), an ink dispenser 87 for applying ink to the characters formed along the loop belt 86, and a fixed hammer 88 installed to strike the loop belt 86 from the inner side thereof toward the window hole 81.
When a key of this stamp apparatus is depressed, the loop belt drive mechanism rotates the loop belt 86 until the character formed thereon represented by the depressed key arrives at the position in front of the hammer 88 in such a manner that the character faces toward the window hole 81 and away from the hammer 88. The hammer 88 then strikes the side of the belt loop opposing the character, so that the character is stamped in ink onto an object to be stamped.
There has been a problem with the conventional stamp apparatus, however, in that regardless of how frequently a certain phrase is used, each time the phrase is required, each character in the phrase must be separately input with the keys 89 because each key 89 corresponds to only one character on the loop belt 86. For example, to stamp the phrase "ESTIMATE ENCLOSED" on an envelope as shown in FIG. 2a, requires pressing at least 17 keys. There has been another problem with the conventional stamp apparatus in that forming stamps which, as shown in FIG. 2b, have characters with a variety of sizes, especially when formed on a plurality of lines, requires increasing the length of the loop belt 86 to accommodate the extra different sized characters. The longer loop belt 86 in turn requires increasing the overall size of the stamp apparatus.
There has been proposed another type of electronic stamp apparatus in Japanese Examined Utility Model Application Publication No. SHO-59-40231. FIG. 3b schematically shows a base portion 93 of the stamp apparatus. The base portion 93 is formed from a first glass plate 91 and a second glass plate 92, both glass plates having a rectangular shape. The rectangular shape of the first glass plate 91 has a width equal to, but a length longer than, that of the second glass plate 92. A broad surface of the second glass plate 92 is attached to the first glass plate 91 at a broad surface thereof, the first glass plate 91being aligned with the second glass plate 92 entirely along one widthwise edge thereof, and partially along two lengthwise edges thereof. The area sandwiched between the two glass plates is filled with liquid crystal so as to form a time display portion 94 on the first glass plate 91. A thermal head 96 is provided to the first glass plate 91 at a widthwise edge 95 opposing the widthwise edge at which the first glass plate is aligned with the second glass plate 92. As shown in FIG. 3a, the base portion 93 is mounted in a stamp frame 97. On the first glass plate 91, there are mounted an electric circuit 98 which includes a time circuit, a display drive circuit, and a stamp drive circuit. The date or time is stamped out on an object formed of thermosensitive paper, according to output from the time circuit.
There has been a problem with the above-described conventional stamp apparatus, however, in that only the date or time can be stamped. There has been another problem with the stamp apparatus in that only thermosensitive paper can be used as the object to be stamped. Also, maintaining the thermal head 96 parallel to the thermosensitive paper requires a great deal of care.